20 Truthes: Cold
by Ms Arano
Summary: The boy would be dead before he was two days old. [And this is why.][COMPLETE]


**Title**: 20 Truthes: Cold  
** Author**: Arano Honou  
** Fandom**: Yu Yu Hakusho  
** Genre**: General  
** Rating**: M, just to be safe  
** Word Count**: 1593?  
**Summary**: The boy would be dead before he was two days old.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho in any way, shape, or form. Any infringement is unintentional. I own only that which I made--the rest is cannon and belongs to Tagashi-sama.  
**EDIT**: Corrected "huriseki" to "hiruiseki", changed summery, added a bit to clarify number 1, added the disclaimer. Changed a homonym, edited numbers 5, 8, 13, 16, 18.  
Author's Notes are at the bottom

* * *

1. "Cold" is defined as the sensation that comes about from the absense of heat, which is a measure of energy. 

2. Once, many, many, _many_, millenia ago, there was a race of demons that had the ability to control the very energy that we call "heat". However, a plague came, and for the first time, the _Makai_ made use of a word that, roughly translated, means "genocide".

3. The _Reikai_, however, made use of a phrase that, millenia later, a human scientist would use in one of his wildly unorthodox theories--"Survival of the fittest".

4. Some few encalves of this race had survived through desperate genetic experimentation, and devote worship of _kami_ that were sympathetic to their plight. At the end of it all, there were a few... differences, between these new races. Some were more animalistic, some had some... interesting appendages, and one was even asexual due to divine intervention.

5. The major (and defining) difference between the New races and the Old race, was the change in magic. Before, they could both give and take energy. Now, it was one or the other.

The races that found the elements to their liking became as thus: those that gave energy became attuned to fire; Those that took energy were bonded to ice.

6. The reason for this soon became glaringly obvious, as the races attuned to each element found that even if they could do what their parent race could, they would not want to. Fire demons, as they were now called, practically oozed heat, leaking it into the areas around them. Places with a high temperture became the most comfortable to them, their magic recognizing and calming in the chaotic energy. Ice demons found that they litterally absorbed any energy around them, and while this did keep most of the races alive simply because of the boost it gave their life magic, a few found that they absorbed too much, resulting in sickness and eventually, death. These races found ways to release the overload of magic, and migrated to climes with the seasons of cold, colder, and whiteout.

7. The encalve that would become the birthplace of the _Koorime_ was one of the hardest hit when the plague came. The men, who were virtually the only ones to actually leave, were the first to die. One woman, Atae, pled to her _Megami_ that her people would live while grieving over her husbands body.

8. Her _Megami_ answered, and while the race that would become the _Koorime_ did in fact survive, they found that there was a steep price. They absorbed so much energy, that it came out in their very tears--beautiful jewels soon dubbed _hiruiseki_, and much sought after by greedy demons. It was also soon discovered that it didn't really matter if all the men-folk were dead, because there wasn't really a need for them anymore. They now asexually reproduced, a girl-child that was nearly identical to the mother born every hundred years.

9. The _Koorime_ soon found a disadvantage with being an all female race--raids became frequent, and rape cases sky rocketed.

It was discovered that intercourse resulted in twins--one female, the other male. The girl would be of ice, but the boy would be of powers and temperment alike to the father. Unfortunately, most twin birthes resulted from rape...

The male-child usually went on pathes of destruction, always brutally killing their mother, and most times getting his twin also.

This is how the legend of the Forbidden Children came in to being.

10. After one particularly bad raid, Reiyaku (Granddaughter to Atae, surviving Forbidden Child) appealed to the _Megami_ that had first saved them, and asked a boon:

Isolation from the outside world.

11. The _Koorime_ had debated for monthes while their world fell down around them -- to stay in the land of their formothers, where they were familiar, or to leave for places unknown, carving out a new home the hostile _Makai_.

12. A particularly devastating raid led by two male Forbidden Children was the closing arguement that they could no longer stay.

13. The _Megami_ had watched over her now patron worshippers, and had long waited for them to come to the conclusion that they had to leave. So when Reiyaku came to Her temple, asking for isolation, She was ready. _Her_ Children would be in a place free of violence, and would live above the other races of _Makai_.

Literally.

One week after Reiyaku made her appeal, the compound and the region surrounding it mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a 120 kilometer wide strip of bare dirt, and the races of the _Makai_ and most of _Reikai_ baffled (But only for a few centuries--one can only go so long with out dieing, afterall).

Soon there were whispers of a Floating Island in the skies of the Ice World, where beautiful Ice Maidens lived, and that you couldn't find unless you had already been there...

14. Even though the _Megami_ had taken her people away from the bulk of _Makai_, She left means for them to return should they want to. At certain points on the Island, runes were carved into the very rock of the mountains, with corresponding runes in temples to the _Megami_ around the _Makai_. These runes, when activated, would transport you from one to the other instantaniously. Of course, as with all things, this bit of history is mostly lost: be it through intential changes, wildly inaccurate stories (which turn to legend, then myth), or, as it seems to be the case with this, simply forgotten.

15. When a _Koorime_ child learns, she learns her reading, writing, math, and on a rare occasion, a few of the more common dialects of the _Makai_. She also learns about the _Megami_, why (or at least, what they think is why) they live on the Island, and, of course (when the child is old enough), about the Forbidden Children and Men.

They are taught that Men are Very-Bad, that Forbidden Children are Forbidden-for-a-Reason, and that You-Should-Not-Leave-the-Island-with-out-a-Very-Good-Reason. Most of the children listened. Some didn't, and of the few that didn't, there were some that found the means to leave and did so, going out to see just for themselves what was really out there.

Most of those ones gave birth to twins, and were brutally slaughtered by their son, who then reigned terror upon the rest of the Koorime until their death.

16. One Koorime who found the runes and used them, was named Hina. A young, powerful ice demoness, she was gone for nearly 75 years before someone found her in a snowdrift on the island, shocked and soot streaked and spattered with blood, clutching a dirty sword and her very, very large belly. The Koorime who found her took her into her home, and started nursing her back to health. When, a day later, when Hina became more aware, she was very weak, and claimed only that she was in pain. The reason why, when there was nary a scratch on her, became apparent.

Hina was going into labor.

17. It was discovered that Hina was the mother of Forbidden Twins (as it is very hard to deny when you have the babes in custody), and one of the elders of the Glacial Village (herself a surviving Forbidden Twin), demanded that the boy be killed by throwing him off the Island. Hina, though still weak from whatever had happened to her (she refused to tell) and the birth, did her best to try and save her son. Knowing that she would never be able to get her children back by force, she begged. She pleaded. She promised that she would take her children and leave the Island forever, if only they would spare his life.

She was refused.

The boy would be dead before he was two days old.

18. Ruri, the closest friend of Hina on the entire Island, was forced to drop the babe off the edge of the island. It was she who had found Hina, and it was she who had called upon a neighbor to help her midwiving the birth, and it was she who would shape the mind of who would become one of the Three Worlds greatest defenders to ever be known. With a few words, she imparted what would become three of the four ruling goals of Hiei's life: find his family, protect his sister, and kill the rest of the _Koorime_.

After giving Hiei the special _hiruiseki _Hina had shed--the only thing the mother could give to the child she had never held--she dropped the day old babe to the wilds of _Makai_, far, far, below...

19. It was years later when Ruri saw Hiei again. He had scared her when he'd first appeared, but after claiming to be the old friend of a Demoness named Hina, the fear was replaced by a sense of loss. Sadly, she led the fire demon to the grave of Hina, telling him that she had killed herself years ago, and that her children were scattered to the winds. It was only when he walked away, that she realized that he was one of those children.

She ran after him, begging him to take his revenge and kill her. He refused, and walked away, never to be seen on the Island again.

(Years later, in the _Ningenkai_, another demon would ask that he kill him, and again he would refuse, remembering _hiruiseki _in the snow...)

20. Hina was the last of line of Atae, the demoness that first brought salvation to the _Koorime_.

It is only fitting that her children are now part of a group that works to save the Three Worlds on a daily basis.

* * *

Translations

Makai--Demon World  
Reikai--Spirit World  
Ningenkai--Human World  
Koorime--"Ice Sprouts"--Dubbed "Ice Maiden"  
Kami--Gods  
Megami--Goddess  
Hiruiseki--The tear gems that Koorime shed when they cry

* * *

Author's Notes  
Umm... yeah, I have no idea where this came from. However, I'm blaming the writers in the Naruto Fandom, specifically all the ones writing the Live Journal 20 Truthes challenge. I haven't even read the official challenge and I know the thing enough to do it! _grumble_ They're addictive, I'm telling ya...  
This probably came about from my chemistry teacher telling my class that there's not really any such thing as cold, so much as an absence of heat. That got me to thinking about just how ice magic users...well, _used_. Blame everything else in this on my over active imagination.  
This is unbeta'd, so any mistakes you see are all mine, and could you please point them out for me? Many thanks.  



End file.
